


Soi-disant

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [940]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-26 23:54:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12569024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Tony's a genius, but he's never met anyone like Gibbs before.





	Soi-disant

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 11/27/2001 for the word [soi-disant](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2001/11/27/soi-disant).
> 
> soi-disant  
> Self-styled; so-called.
> 
> So I tried to make this fit a prompt or a series, but muse had other plans and wrote this instead. It's essentially a rewrite of Tony's origin story.
> 
> As always comments, kudos, and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated.

# 

Soi-disant

As a kid, Tony both loved and hated the attention from his father. He so badly wanted to make his father proud. He tried his best to solve the intellectual problems that his father gave him and to win the competitions his father entered him in. 

Still he couldn’t help secretly wishing that his father loved him for more than his brain. If he could give up his soi-disant genius, he would. Nobody understood what it was like for him though. 

They all thought he had it made. Even at the private school his father paid for that basically resulted in him having private tutors for every class, the kids envied him. They didn’t know what went on behind the scenes.

Oh, his father never hit him. Well not unless he was particularly drunk, but what Senior did was far worse. The emotional turmoil Tony lived in, made him quite certain that no one would ever love him if he wasn’t at the top of his class and every competition. 

He couldn’t take time for fun. He had to constantly study and improve his mind. If he didn’t, the amenities would disappear.

By amenities, he didn’t mean being able to watch TV. No, this was even harsher. His father would order that no one was to feed him and sometimes, Senior would hand cuff him to his desk and forget about him.

The cooks would try and slip him food against orders, but if they were caught it was an immediate termination. Christmas presents, birthday presents, and anything else Tony wanted was all dependant on how well he was doing according to whatever grading scale Senior happened to be using at that time. 

Tony tried his best, but it was impossible even for a genius like him to be as perfect as Senior expected him to be. Having no companions to turn to that understood what he felt like, Tony soon grew to hate his own brain. He believed that if he had a normal brain like everyone else his life would be completely different and he’d be able to play basketball, football, watch TV and everything else he saw everyone else his age doing that he never had time for.

He couldn’t do much about it at home. The servants were too scared of his father and there was nowhere to hide from his father in their home despite it’s huge manor appearance. When he qualified for college, he had to hide his excitement. 

Finally, he’d be away from his father and able to do all the things he’d never been able to do before. Of course, that didn’t stop his father from trying to enroll him in a million genius competitions even while he was away at college. In a fit of teenage rebellion, Tony decided to hide his genius. Instead, he pretended to be normal or stupid. 

He joined a fraternity and became known as a playboy. His father was furious when he found out. He immediately stopped funding Tony’s college tuition, but it was too late. 

Tony’s fraternity helped him make due until he could fund his schooling through various scholarships that he actually enjoyed earning. He’d decided to go the complete opposite of what his father had been pushing him towards and started participating in sports. He’d always been relatively fit, but he’d never known how good he was at sports until then.

An accident happened before he could pursue sports to their fullest. Still Tony didn’t turn back to intellectual pursuits. Or at least not what his father would consider intellectual pursuits. 

Instead, Tony joined the police academy. His father practically hung his head in shame when he found out his son’s new career. If Tony hadn’t been disinherited before, he definitely was after that. 

Still he was having the time of his life even if it was hard work and he wouldn’t have changed anything. That didn’t mean it was easy. Dirty partners followed by bastard Navy cops resulted in Tony joining NCIS.

By that time, he’d gotten so good at hiding his intelligence behind stupid stunts that even though he had one of the highest solve rates, no one thought he was any good. No one until Gibbs that is. Tony didn’t know what to make of Leroy Jethro Gibbs. 

He wasn’t like anyone else he’d ever met before. It was clear Gibbs was no genius. Particularly not when it came to women or money, as he had 3 alimonies he had to pay. Yet, Gibbs seemed to see more about Tony than anyone else ever had. 

At least, he’d seen Tony’s intelligence as far as solving cases went. Tony couldn’t help being intrigued by this contradiction in someone. It was that curiosity that resulted in Tony joining NCIS and working with Leroy Jethro Gibbs, self proclaimed bastard.

He knew Gibbs was different the first time he met him. He didn’t realize how different he was until Senior came snooping around again. Usually everyone pandered to Senior, Gibbs was the first who didn’t. 

This confused Tony even more. He’d never met anyone who hadn’t at least tried to make Senior happy except for his frat brothers. Even to his genius mind, Gibbs was a true mystery. A conundrum that Tony was determined to try and solve no matter how long it took.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, I'm looking for a writing buddy. Full details are [here](https://cutsycat.livejournal.com/53610.html). It is friends locked, so you'll have to add me as a friend on lj before you can read it. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them.
> 
>  **Warning! Warning! 2017 ends in about 2 months. When 2017 ends, the 2017 prompt collection will close.** You have 50 prompts you can use for 2017. Use them up before they go away. Prompts are currently open. If you'd like to prompt me, please do so [here](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/NCIS_Prompts_2017/profile). Note you have to be an ao3 member to do this. 
> 
> When 2018 starts, I will open a 2018 Prompt collection. In fact, I have already created the 2018 Prompt collection [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile), but sign ups are closed until 2018, so you won't be able to sign up and prompt me on this collection, yet. The 2017 prompts continue to remain over for you to prompt me with until the end of the year.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes.
> 
> Feel free to leave feedback here if you think something could be improved(either in the prompt process or the story itself).


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